Page 48 of Sweeter Than Honey
They raced to the truck and Jett had it in drive before he’d even closed his door. Speeding down his driveway, he veered to the right at the bottom of the hill, taking a small connecting road that met Heeder Road. His tires dug into the soft dirt, gravel sluggishly spitting out from beneath the wheels. The rain had softened the ground considerably. He recalled being drenched in the downpour sometime in the night.
Heeder Road was a primitive, narrow pass that connected the top of Jett’s mountain to the outskirts of Estes Park. It was passable in the summer when conditions were dry. But it was rarely maintained and was prone to blockages by avalanches and cascades of boulders and large rocks. He himself rarely used the road, but his wife had. It cut twenty minutes off her drive into Estes Park and allowed her to bypass downtown traffic on her way to the dance studio where Chloe had taken ballet lessons.
If only they’d endured the extra time and taken another route on that fateful day.
“Dude!”
Desi’s voice pulled him from his reverie. Large potholes had formed in the road, and he narrowly missed them. Swerving onto the grass, he maneuvered the truck back onto the road. The rain had dug rivulets into the dirt, washing away any tracks that might have been there before them. Jett flew down the road, knowing in his heart that they’d gone this way. They sped down a decline and made a sharp right, then over a stretch of rocks to a small incline.
A flash of blue made him hit the brakes. Desi gripped the dash as Jett ground the truck to a stop.
A full-sized pickup truck blocked the road a few feet away. Jere Lighthouse stood at the front of the truck, a shotgun in his hands, and a glare that Jett knew meant trouble.
Chapter Twenty-One
“WhatthefuckisLighthouse doing here?”
Desi was out of the truck the moment Jett stopped.
“Des, wait.”
Jett joined him outside and motioned for his brother to hang back. Jere glanced between the two men.
“You can’t get past, son. Sorry.”
“Because you say so?” Jett challenged.
The older man nodded matter-of-factly. “Yeah, that’s right. I do say so.”
Of all the times for the old man to get pissy because Jett hadn’t sold his land. “I don’t have time for this right now. We’re going around you.”
Jere lowered his weapon and sighed. “You can’t, Jett. I’ve got men up on the pass moving equipment to a job site. They’re completely trapped in. An avalanche came down in the rain.”
No!
Jett’s pulse ratcheted with panic. “Did they see anyone else on the road?”
“Yep,” Jere nodded with an irritated widening of his eyes. “Which is why I have this gun. Seems a few of your men are running wild, ripping shit up.”
Jett put his palms out. “They’re not my men. They’ve got Cara.”
Jere cocked his head. “Are they driving a box van? If so, it got pushed down the side of the mountain in the cascade last night. I hear it’s hanging on by a thread. Whatever’s inside is enough to make these shifters go nuts trying to get at it before rescue arrives. My men were attempting to get through the pass this morning when they came upon the wreckage and called it in. Now the shifters won’t let them leave.”
“Rescue has been called?” Desi asked.
“Yeah.”
Jett looked at his brother and reminded himself to breathe. The van was over the side of the mountain. Cara must still be inside. If rescue had been called, that meant their cousin Fox Mitchell was on his way. He was the Captain of the Estes Park Search and Rescue squad.
“My men are hauling a small excavator. They thought they could hook it onto the van and stabilize it, but those crazy ass shifters won’t let them get out of their vehicle.”
There was no telling how long she’d been inside the unstable van. What position she was in, if she was hurt.
“Radio your men to stay put. There are others on the way. Let them through and we’ll have this mess cleaned up in no time.”
Jere eyed Jett’s arms, his eyebrows shooting up. “You okay there, son?”
Jett glanced at his hair covered limbs. “No.” He and Desi got back in the truck and maneuvered around Jere’s vehicle, then picked their way down the rain-damaged road. He couldn’t imagine trying to move heavy machinery down this shit path. The convenience factor must have been worth the risk, and if they really could use the excavator to stabilize the van, it was more than worth it.
